Tax Day

I really should 
be doing my taxes, 
as they're due today, 
and I've barely started them, 
and I have to do a Schedule C, 

and my receipts are in little piles 
of various-sized papers on known 
and unknown surfaces, and in crevices, 
throughout the house, and, may be, 

in the glove-compartment of the car, 
mixed in with other proof: Danish
with you last spring one late morning 
on the balcony, remembering out over the 
traffic sounds - it's why I must keep this 
butter wrapper sprinkled with coffee grounds.

Author's Note

Copyright 2001. Originally under the title, "2001," which I used because I wrote it on tax day 2001 but also because I've always wanted to use the title "2001." It is poignant for me to look back at that year and how insouciant the world seemed then 5 months before Sept. 11.

Reviews

[A. H. Pinley]

2001 would prove to change America forever. For some, probably for the good and others, for the worse. Who loves Tax Day? D.C.